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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22379752">Let´s misbehave.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/JosieCarioca/pseuds/JosieCarioca'>JosieCarioca</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Toy Box [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Family Fluff, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Rough Sex, Severus Snape Has a Heart, Sexual Frustration, Sneaking Around, uncle sev</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 15:47:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>17,667</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22379752</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/JosieCarioca/pseuds/JosieCarioca</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Meeting your significant other´s family is never easy, but Severus Snape did not expect this. Cole Porter´s "Let´s misbehave" is partly to blame for this and also VictoriaHolmesWriting who requested the prompt "getting caught" and also Snapecentric who suggested "sexually frustrated Snape".</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Severus Snape /Evelyn Black, Severus Snape/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Toy Box [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1662841</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>75</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. House rules</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Requested by @<a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/VictoriaHolmesWriting/pseuds/VictoriaHolmesWriting">VictoriaHolmesWriting</a> with thanks to @<a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snapecentric/pseuds/Snapecentric">Snapecentric</a> for the suggestions.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p class="western"><br/>
<br/>
</p><p class="western">Doolin, Summer of 1999.</p><p class="western"><br/>
<br/>
</p><p class="western">Severus didn´t exactly expect it to be smooth sailing and blue skies, but bloody hell it was quite more than he had bargained for.</p><p class="western">Evelyn had given him fair warning. She had told him her mother could be rather...difficult. He hadn´t thought much of it. Parents and their grown children didn´t always see eye to eye and Severus knew both Evelyn and her mum had big personalities, So, he thought, it was natural that they disagreed and even clashed here and there.</p><p class="western">He was made aware that Evelyn´s mother wasn´t too keen on the idea of her dating anybody non Irish and non Catholic, which was something he could, up to a point, understand. Sophia Black´s grandfather had fought in the Irish War of Indepence so, no doubt she wasn´t told any fairytales about genteel English queens and princes growing up. He still found it a bit odd that for all her flag waving nationalism, Sophia had married the son of Englishman Marius Black, but the heart wants wat the heart wants.</p><p class="western">All and all, Severus Snape arrived in Doolin ready to face off a harmless Irish catholic widow who would probably be a bit grumpy about his presence in her house and that would be it. He could even picture her, knitting by the window or tending to her roses while going on about “children these days” and “the state of the world”.</p><p class="western">Hardly a fearsome adversary.</p><p class="western">Evelyn´s warnings that her mother was a “force to be reckoned with” were probably just the benign, humorous exaggeration of a daughter who had a few differences with her loving but strict mother. Nothing to worry about.</p><p class="western">Merlin, was he wrong.</p><p class="western">He hadn´t found a harmless grandmother spouting casually conservative platitudes, as he expected. Sophia Black , all of 5 feet of her (with heels on, it should be noted), was surprisingly intimidating.</p><p class="western">She welcomed them at the door, blonde hair coiffed à la Kim Novak in “Vertigo”, single string of pearls around her neck, matching earrings, wearing a crisp powder blue shirtwaist dress and white court shoes. She stood perfectly upright, chin up, hands clasped in front of her, like an illustration from an ettiquette manual. Severus could immediately tell who had taught (or rather trained) Evelyn how to dress, walk, sit and do her make up. Evelyn had probably failed the lessons on how to look down her nose at people upon first meeting, though.</p><p class="western">Evelyn looked almost nothing like her mother, except for the fact that both were beautiful women.</p><p class="western">Evelyn was a tall, buxom brunette while Sophia was a short, svelte blonde. But while she obviously favoured her father´s side of the family n looks, it was clear where Lyn had gotten her confidence and aplomb, not to mention the perfect set of cheekbones.</p><p class="western">The moment he stood before her, Severus could see Sophia´s icy blue eyes measure him from head to toe, without as much a feeble attempt at discretion. He didn´t need bother with legilimency to know she didn´t particularly like what she saw. Fair enough, he thought, he´d been called many things in his life time, but 'handsome' had never been one of them, he gave her that much. No offense taken.</p><p class="western">It was when they walked in that he realized he just might have been in for a bit of trouble.</p><p class="western">“Mam, why is great-grandpa´s rifle in the living room?!” he heard Evelyn say, alarmed, before he even had a chance to put his second foot through the the threshold.</p><p class="western">“Great-grandpa´s rifle” was the 1914 Mauser model 71 rifle Evelyn´s great-grandfather had used to raid the RIC barracks when he was as part of the 3<sup>rd</sup> Tippperary Brigade of the Irish Republican Army.</p><p class="western">The bloody thing was mounted on the wall above the mantle like a trophy.</p><p class="western">“Didn´t dad put that thing away years ago?” Evelyn sounded more than a bit aggravated, once the initial surprise wore off.</p><p class="western">Severus had to give it to her mother, that was just... brilliant.</p><p class="western">It was a strong opening statement, to welcome an Englishman into the house with an actual IRA rifle mounted right on the living room wall. The woman had style if anything.</p><p class="western">“He did, but I figured why leave it collecting dust in the attic. It´s a historical piece, after all.”</p><p class="western">“Then maybe we should donate it to a museum.”</p><p class="western">“Nonsense, Irish museums have more Mauser rifles than the Vatican has paintings of naked arses, my dear. This one belongs to our family. I´m sure Severus would want to know a bit more about the family history, after all.”</p><p class="western">“Mother, I swear...”</p><p class="western">“She´s right.” Severus interrupted her with a sly smile. “It is a...very interesting piece of historical memorabilia.”</p><p class="western">“And it still works.” Sophia added, without missing a beat.</p><p class="western">“I´m sure it does, Mrs. Black” he snickered. “I´m sure it does. It could probably take down another man or a few, I bet.”</p><p class="western">“Mausers are forever, my lad. If you two give me a moment, I´ll finish up the table so we can have some tea. Make yourself at home, Severus.”</p><p class="western">“I am so sorry, Sev.” Evelyn told him, mortified, when her mother was out of earshot “I bet she got Cillian to that thing up for her, like it would be quite the joke. I´ll have some words with him about enabling her like this...”</p><p class="western">“Shhh, love. Relax. It´s all perfectly fine.”</p><p class="western">“No, it´s not!”</p><p class="western">“I´ve dealt with worst, trust me.” he gave her a quick peck on the lips, before eyeing the rifle over the mantle “Genuinely curious, though..can your mother shoot that thing?”</p><p class="western">“She can, actually.”</p><p class="western">“Fascinating woman, your mother.” he grimaced “I like her already.”</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Her mother had behaved over tea. Somewhat.</p><p class="western">She mostly ignored Severus presence, as much as Evelyn tried to include him in the conversation, but at least she wasn´t rude to him. Evelyn looked at Severus and found him to be quite at ease, relaxed almost. He probably thought the rifle had been the end of it, and the rest of their stay would be normal.</p><p class="western">What he didn´t know was that her mother was saving the heavy artillery for when they had an audience.</p><p class="western">Evelyn´s sister and her two daughters had been invited for dinner. Her mother had planned to invite some more relatives to show Severus off for the oddity she seemed to think he was, or to find a way to make him unconfortable. She knew he was reserved and didn´t like crowds, Evelyn had told her over and over, but she seemed to wilfully ignore it. So Evelyn had to put her foot down and flat out demand that only Caitlin and the girls should be invited. It would be much to overwhelming for him to be introduced to their extended family on the first day, and she did want her sister and her daugthers to get a chance to meet him without all the fuss. Evelyn had stopped caring about her mother´s approval of any man she dated a while ago, but she needed Cat´s blessing, and any man she brought into her life would have to at least try and get along with her nieces. As much as Severus proclaimed not to like children, she knew he did at least have a protective streak when it came to them and Alice and Lizzie were dying to finally meet “aunt Linnie´s boyfriend.” She knew they´d get on just fine.</p><p class="western">The reduced size of the audience didn´t matter, however. As soon as they all sat down to eat, Sophia charged again.</p><p class="western">Over the course of the meal, Severus was interrogated about his current work situation, his education, his family, his religious background, political affiliation and everything else short of what color underwear he preferred. Caitlin tried to divert the conversation to lighter, more pleasant topics time and time again, aware of Evelyn´s silent unease, but Severus was having entire too much fun in antagonising her mother.</p><p class="western">Of course the pork roast was to his liking, he said. Which was marvelous because one of Sophia´s friends had raised the oh-so-valid concern that he might be Jewish. (Evelyn even knew exactly which one).</p><p class="western">No m´am, he said, not Jewish at all.</p><p class="western">“A life long atheist”</p><p class="western">Evelyn sighed.</p><p class="western">It would be a long evening.</p><p class="western"> </p>
<hr/><p class="western"><br/>
<br/>
</p><p class="western">Severus smiled, basking on the awkward silence that followed.</p><p class="western">“What´s an atheist?” Alice, Caitlin´s oldest daugher, a charmingly bright 6 year old, asked him, slightly mispronouncing the word.</p><p class="western">“Somebody who doesn´t believe in God.” Severus told her, unfettered.</p><p class="western">“How about angels?”</p><p class="western">“Nope, No God, no angels, no saints.”</p><p class="western">That wasn´t exactly true. Severus was not religious at all, but he never gave the idea of God´s existence enough tought to truly claim being a commited atheist, which, to be honest, seemed like putting too much effort into something he barely thought about on a daily basis. The look on Sophia´s face was worth the over simplification though. Maybe he should twist the knife a little.</p><p class="western">“I did consider Wicca for a while.” he lied with a straight face. There were Wiccan wizards (as much as there were christian, hindu, jewish or muslim wizards, to be sure), but Severus most definitely wasn´t and had never been one of them</p><p class="western">“What´s Wicca?” Alice, Merlin bless her and her beutifully curious mind, asked again.</p><p class="western">“Witchcraft, darling.” Caitlin answered, giving him a complicit wink, as Sophia near choked on her wine. Alice looked at him with wide eyed wonder.</p><p class="western">“Not to be confused with Satanism, of course.” Severus continued gleefuly, knowing it would pick Alice´s interest enough for her to ask. Evelyn looked at him as if she was about to reach across the table to choke him.</p><p class="western">“Wha...”Alice started but Sophia switched the subject before she had a chance to finish the question.</p><p class="western">Shame, Severus thought, to deny a child´s legitimate thirst for knowledge.</p><p class="western">The conversation moved on as Severus dodged question after question, a smile on his lips, trying his best to pick the answer that would most infuriate Sophia, but taking care to phrase it in the most elegant and polite words he could find, so she would not have a legitimate reason to be furious.</p><p class="western">Yes, he was currently employed. Oh, yes, government position, good stability, but doesn´t necessarily pay that well, isn´t it true?</p><p class="western">“Sure, the pay could better, of course. But then again I´m just a scholar, wasn´t your husband a teacher, surely you know how it is.”</p><p class="western">One of Evelyn´s exes is making quite a profit with his new business, by the way.</p><p class="western">“That´s wonderful, Mrs. Black, must be nice opening a business to so little competition, good on the lad, fortunate enough to get a first loan from his father, I´ve heard. Very good for him indeed.”</p><p class="western">Well, it´s not very appropriate to talk about money matters at the table.</p><p class="western">“Definitely Mrs. Black, say, what´s your opinion on the Belfast agreement? Some people are saying it´s the end of the IRA.”</p><p class="western">Evelyn almost missed his foot when she kicked him under the table for that one.</p><p class="western"> </p>
<hr/><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">They walked back to the house hand in hand after escorting Caitlin and the girls home.</p><p class="western">Cat lived a couple blocks down the street, and it was still early, so they had decided to stay a little longer for a couple drinks. Caitlin put the girls to bed and opened a bottle of Evelyn´s favorite rosé. The three of them sat outside in the garden and had a good laugh about all the nonsense that transpired during dinner. Then Cat offered Severus some valuable advice on how to deal with their mother.</p><p class="western">“Nod and smile. Whatever you do, just let her think she´s calling the shots. It´s how dad did it.”</p><p class="western">It was true. Their father, God rest his soul, was probably the most collected, serene man to have walked the earth. Whenever their mother decided to be difficult all he did was take a step back and allow her to get it out of her system, then return when she was done so they work it out calmly. Evelyn had seen him truly lose his temper with her mother maybe once her whole life. And that time it had been entirely Evelyn´s fault.</p><p class="western">Caitlin was a lot like their father in that way. Evelyn looked like him, but Cat had his way of taking everything in stride. In fact, Evelyn almost forgot Severus had been a bit of a wanker over dinner.</p><p class="western">But surely enough they had to talk about it on the way back</p><p class="western">“Well, dinner sure was something...” she said, quietly</p><p class="western">“I found it to be quite...successful.”</p><p class="western">“Oh, did you. Let me see, you told my mother you´re an atheist with wiccan and satanist proclivities, you gave her sass the whole evening and your idea of pleasant dinner conversation is asking charged questions about Irish-British relations to a woman who welcomed you in her house with an IRA gun mounted on the wall. Yes, quite successful, I´d say.”</p><p class="western">“I told you I liked your mother. She´s an absolute riot. I had buckets of fun.”</p><p class="western">“You´re fecking impossible. I don´t know which one of you two is worse.”</p><p class="western">“If I were to bet I say the one with the rifle” he laughed.</p><p class="western">“For what´s worth she doesn´t really have anything against jewish people.”</p><p class="western">“Really? I´d never guess...”</p><p class="western">“One of her stupid church friends made that joke when they saw a picture of us I sent Cat.”</p><p class="western">“It was the nose, right? It´s always the nose.”</p><p class="western">“Knowing her she probably thought she´s throw it in just for the chance of annoying you regardless of wether you were Jewish or not. Same with the malarkey about your job and everything else. She´s just trying anything to see what sticks.”</p><p class="western">“She likes pushing people´s buttons is what you´re trying to say.”</p><p class="western">“She does. Which is why I was expecting you two would get along, you have that in common.”</p><p class="western">They found her mother waiting for them in the living room when they walked in, sitting on the couch, in her flowery robe, glasses on, a book in one hand and a cup of tea in the other and an open box of chcolates on the coffee table. Evelyn was surprised she didn´t put the soundtrack for “The Godfather” on, for added effect.</p><p class="western">“There you two are. I almost thought you´d stay over at Cat´s. I figure you´d be tired and want to turn in a little early tonight, so your bedrooms are ready.” she informed them, looking over her book.</p><p class="western"> </p>
<hr/><p class="western"><br/>
<br/>
</p><p class="western">Evelyn sighed as if she had been through this before. Severus needed a moment to get it...“bedrooms”. Bedrooms. Plural. One for each. Of course it shouldn´t be a surprise that Sophia would put them in separate rooms even though they were both adults who had been living with each other for a good while. Of course she would.</p><p class="western">“You´ll stay in your old room as always, Linnie, and I´ve prepared the guest room for Severus. It´s the last one down the hall.”</p><p class="western">“Mother...”</p><p class="western">“Evelyn, I´d like to have a word with you in private, if Severus doesn´t mind, of course.”</p><p class="western">Severus tried not to laugh too loud as he went upstairs and he closed the door to his room behind himself. At age 39. he had just been sent to his room as if he was a child. It was so ridiculous he didn´t find it in him to be annoyed. That Sophia needed some time alone to talk to her daughter was entirely understandable, but the way she had all but told him to go to his room as if she would do a little boy, was quite something.</p><p class="western">He sighed and decided it was for the best to just put on his pajamas, get into bed with a good book and call it a day.</p><p class="western">Severus had tested his luck enough for the time being. It was probably better to heed to Mrs Black´s whims for now, and try and behave. After all, they´d be there for a couple weeks only, it would all be over soon, so there was no need to complicate things for himself.</p><p class="western"><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p class="western"><br/>
<br/>
</p><p class="western">“So, what do you want to talk about?” Evelyn started, taking a seat on her father´s favorite armchair. “I hope you´re going to apologize for how you treated him.”</p><p class="western">“I don´t trust this man.” Her mother answered, casually, almost as if she was telling her they had run out of sugar.</p><p class="western">“You don´t...you...” Evelyn took a deep breath, trying not to lose her temper “Mother, you welcome him with a rifle on the wall, and has to gall of saying you don´t trust him? Why? Because he´s not Catholic? Not Irish? English? Jesus, it´s not 1916, anymore.”</p><p class="western">“None of that!” she waved her hand, dismissively “He´s hiding something.”</p><p class="western">“Excuse me?”</p><p class="western">“I´m telling you, pet. I know when a man is not being truthful and that one? That one looks like he´s a habitual liar. You can tell by looking at him.”</p><p class="western">“That´s preposterous.”</p><p class="western">“Where did he get that scar? And that horrible tatoo on his arm.”</p><p class="western">“He got the scar in an accident, and the tatoo is some stupid teenage shenanigans.”</p><p class="western">“He´s shifty, that one. You can see it in the way he behaves. And how smug, how evasive he is, it´s like he´s...”</p><p class="western">“Good night, mam.” she bolted out of her seat. As she walked past her mother , however, she felt her hand touch hers.</p><p class="western">“Evelyn, no. Don´t go just yet.”</p><p class="western">“If you´re going to continue with this...”</p><p class="western">“I won´t. I won´t. Sit here” she patted the space beside her “Let´s talk about something else, then.”</p><p class="western"> </p>
<hr/><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">After what felt like a little over an hour Severus noticed the lights in the rest of the house were turned off and he heard the sound of steps coming up the stairs, doors opening and closing and Evelyn´s voice wishing her mother good night. He looked at the clock on his bedside table.</p><p class="western">Midnight.</p><p class="western">Too early for him, but he probably should try to sleep. He was sure either Evelyn or Mrs Black would want him to be up early the next day for whatever reason. He was tired enough that he could use the rest, anyway.</p><p class="western">He put the book on the side table and turned off the light.</p><p class="western">As he was on the brink of dozing off he heard the sound of the door cracking open. Before he could reach for the light, he felt the mattress cave under the weight of somebody sitting on his side.</p><p class="western">“Lyn?”</p><p class="western">“I thought I´d find you awake.” she turned the light on.</p><p class="western">She had changed into a nightgown. A long white cotton, shapeless thing with some cutesy Irish lace details. Something her grandmother may have wore to bed back in the day. Not at all like the sleek and sensuous silk nightgowns she wore to go to bed with him back home. Severus found it funny that she felt the need to put on this demure, near virginal outfit on to go to bed, just because she was back in her childhood home.</p><p class="western">Truth to be told, however, it didn´t look bad on her. It didn´t look bad on her at all, he thought, noticing how the light of the lamp made the fabric look sheer, and how nicely the white lace constrasted with her summer tan.</p><p class="western">“I was about to fall asleep” he sat up “ you and your mother took forever down there.”</p><p class="western">“Sorry. About everything.”</p><p class="western">“Did she do this with every man you ever brought home or is it just me?”</p><p class="western">“Every last one. But before my father was here to reign her in a little. Actually I think that´s part of the reason she´s being so hard on you. You´re the first boyfriend I bring home since dad passed away, and...I don´t know...It´s like life moved on without him, and she can´t quite accept it.” she shrugged</p><p class="western">“What were you two talking about all this time?”</p><p class="western">“This and that” she trailled off.</p><p class="western">“You´re a terrible liar, love, and you know it. Come on...how bad did I screw this all up?” he smiled, pushing her hair behind her ear.</p><p class="western">“You didn´t.”</p><p class="western">“She just doesn´t like me, then.”</p><p class="western">“She doesn´t trust you. She thinks you´re hiding something.”</p><p class="western">“She´s right... I am. WE are. Your mother is not stupid, and she seems to know you like the back of her hand. And she didn´t do that bad of a job in reading me, it seems. I´m telling you, I´m starting to admire her.”</p><p class="western">“Will we tell her, one day? I mean, can we?”</p><p class="western">“We can, eventually. Maybe we should, even. Muggles deserve to know when they have magical family members. Your brother was a wizard, she deserves to know what happened to him. And if there´s the possibility of her having a magical grandchild, then all the more reason for her to know. Your sister too. There´s ways to go about it.”</p><p class="western">“It just seems so...so much. I still haven´t taken it all in myself...”</p><p class="western">“Come here...”</p><p class="western">Severus pushed the covers away and pulled her to his chest, resting his cheek on the top of her head to breath in the scent of her hair. Evelyn relaxed, melting into him. He ran his hand down the curve of her hip, feeling bare skin, firm flesh under the soft white cotton.</p><p class="western">Irish summers were not particularly hot, and the night outside was quite clear and pleasant, a soft cool breeze making its way in from the sea...yet Severus started to feel a little too hot.</p><p class="western">He shivered when her hand snuck under his shirt and she dragged her nails lightly down his abdomen, scrtaching ever so slightly. Then she shifted and her breath was on his neck, ticklish and warm.</p><p class="western">“I´m sorry to interrupt...”</p><p class="western">Severus couldn´t believe his ears...really? REALLY?</p><p class="western">Of course, of course she was standing right at this bedroom door, in the dark like a damned ghost.</p><p class="western">Of course she was.</p><p class="western">“Linnie, would be a dear and go fetch my medicine from the kitchen. I must have forgotten.”</p><p class="western">“You couldn´t go yourself?” Evelyn asked, pleadingly.</p><p class="western">“You know I get terrible vertigo if I have to get up after I´ve turned in for the night.I don´t quite trust going down the stairs.”</p><p class="western">“Go...” Severus told her, defeated, rubbing one of her slumped shoulders.</p><p class="western"> </p>
<hr/><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">That was just the beginning of it all.</p><p class="western">Sophia seemed hellbent on not allowing the two of them a moment of peace and quiet, just the two of them.</p><p class="western">Evelyn had, of course, decided to take him to all the places there were to see in Doolin. They had been to the pubs, the stores, the beaches, they had taken boat rides and visited the caves and cliffs. She had told him stories of her childhood and shown him the places where she used to play, where she had fallen off her bike for the first time, where she learned to swim, the tree under which she had her first kiss.</p><p class="western">It was sweet, comforting and nostalgic, and it felt as if they were closer than ever before.</p><p class="western">But the moment they stepped back into the house her mother found a way to snatch her back from him, Any excuse would do. She needed to go shopping, she needed help in the kitchen, she was having dizzy spells, she had something important to talk about in private...at any given moment the would be <b>something</b>, anything, she needed Evelyn for.</p><p class="western">Then, at the end of the day, they would each go to their respective room like mischievous little children who needed to be kept separate so they wouldn´t get in trouble. Invariably, her mother would feel 'a wee under the weather', and have sudden bouts of insomnia. Severus wouldn´t put past Mrs Black to actually be listening in to make sure neither one was sneaking into each other´s room in the middle of the night. And neither would Evelyn, at this point.</p><p class="western">In the first two or three days, Severus forced himself to let it all go. He didn´t say anything, and he surely didn´t make any attempt to try and break the “curfew”. He, quite mistakenly, thought if he 'behaved adequately', Mrs Black would eventually relent, but as the days passed she showed no sign of change whatsoever. Evelyn knew better thant that. She knew that when her mother got something in her head, there was no amount of “nodding and smiling” that would get her to relent. She would stop when she wanted to stop.</p><p class="western">It had been amusing enough at first. Sneaking up on each in the kitchen or in her father´s old study to have a stolen few minutes alone, a few moments of stolen kisses and chaste carresses was not at all unpleasant. It felt as if they were kids again.</p><p class="western">There was something almost...exhilarating about it.</p><p class="western">They had a backyard full of stunning rosebushes, that grew around an apple tree. It was a ancient, venerable tree that had stood there since before the house was built. It stood tall and luxuriant, bearing flower and fruit every year without fail. Evelyn´s father had hung a wooden swing from the sturdiest of it´s branches for her and her siblings to play, and on warmer summer days, she would put a picnic towel under it so she could read under its sweet shade. Now the old apple tree that had sheltered her from the sun and rain as she grew up became a refuge for their quick encounters. On the excuse of seeking shade to protect themselves from the oh-so-inclement Irish summer sun, they´d sit under the tree and snogg like randy, lovesick teenagers.</p><p class="western">It was fun...but soon it was not enough.</p><p class="western"><br/>
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</p><p class="western">As quaint and delightful as it was, that little roleplay of hiding from mummy dearest, by the fifth day, Severus was crawling up the walls with frustration and pent up lust. He knew Evelyn wasn´t faring much better, but she did a better job of hiding than he did. Severus was slowly getting testy, aggravated and moody. Getting himself to fall asleep at night became a chore.</p><p class="western">When all the lights in the house went out at the end of the sixth day, he lay wide awake in bed.</p><p class="western">“Fuck this, fuck all of this.” he hissed, mumbling to himself, kicking the covers and heading downstairs as quietly as he could. He knew Mrs. Black kept a bottle of her best whiskey stashed away in the kitchen cabinet. By God, if the woman could deprive him of Evelyn, he would at least put a good dent on her prized Irish whiskey.</p><p class="western">“You came for the whiskey, right?”</p><p class="western">He found Evelyn sitting on the kitchen table, feet dangling above the floor, hair pulled up in a mess that vaguely resembled a bun, the pristine white nightgown hoisted up above her thick, lush thighs, the lacy straps falling so dangerously low about her shoulders her breasts were almost bare. It took Severus a moment to register the fact that she had an open tub of Ben&amp;Jerry´s ice cream on her lap, a spoon in her hand and, on the table next to her, a glass full of ice and her mother´s prized bottle of whiskey, open.</p><p class="western">“Whiskey? What whiskey?” he grinned hungrily.</p><p class="western">“The glasses are on the cupboard behind you.” she said, visibly amused by his reaction.</p><p class="western">Severus collected his thoughts and summoned a glass and some ice.</p><p class="western">“Get a spoon too.” she suggested, pointing to a drawer, and her voice was filled with an excitement he only ever heard from students sneaking out of their dorms for snogging sessions in one of the vacant storerooms.</p><p class="western">“No, I´m good.” he smiled</p><p class="western">“You sure? I don´t usually share ice cream.”</p><p class="western">“I can think of a few more interesting things to do than eat ice cream.” he finished his drink in a single gulp and went to her, so he could caress the side of her leg, from knee to hip.</p><p class="western">“Oh, can you really?”</p><p class="western">Her voice did that thing, that low, guttural, raspy drop it did when she got aroused, and Severus knew whatever shred of respect he had for her mother and her ridiculous rules had just shattered. Without even thinking he stood between her parted legs, grabbed the tube of ice cream from her hands, threw it in the sink, then gave her a devouring, demanding kiss.</p><p class="western">Her tongue tasted of vanila, chocolate and need.</p><p class="western"> </p>
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</p><p class="western">“Where was this enthusiasm over the past few nights?” she joked, biting his lower lip “My bedroom is across the hallway, you know?”</p><p class="western">“And Mother superior´s bedroom is right next to yours. She was too eager to inform me that old mauser still works, so I´m not taking my chances.”</p><p class="western">“Don´t tell me you´re scared of her? The man who lied to the...how was it that you called him again...the 'Dark Lord'...” Even now that she had seen magic with her own eyes and had read the newspapers talking about the things Severus did, it still felt surreal to talk about it, as if it was part of their normal coexistence.</p><p class="western">“Unlike your mother, the Dark Lord could occasionaly be reasoned with.” he told her, claiming her lips again, before she could come up with a clever answer.</p><p class="western"><br/>
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</p><p class="western">Nights in the countryside are eerily quiet, more than he was used to in the mostly abandoned Spinner´s End. All he could hear outside was the occasional cricket, and in the stillness of the night their laboured breath, the soft rustle of their clothes as they pushed them out of the way without quite taking them off and the wet sucking and licking of lips on lips and lips on skin sounded much louder than it was supposed to be.</p><p class="western">Severus couldn´t be bothered to care. Her thighs around his waist pulled him in, he had no idea where the old, beat up Joy Division t-shirt he slept in had been thrown and his pajama pants were half way down his arse.</p><p class="western">With his luck, he wouldn´t be surprised if they were caught right in the middle of it (did Mrs. Black even sleep, he wondered), and it would certainly be wise to either stop or at least make haste, but he, quite honestly didn´t give a damn.</p><p class="western">Evelyn´s lips and teeth were all over his neck, his colarbone, her fingers digging into the flesh of his buttocks, pulling him to her. She had scooted closer, so dangerously close to edge of the table he could feel the slick arousal sliding, grinding against the underside of his fully erect cock.</p><p class="western"> </p>
<hr/><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Evelyn knew just how to get him. For all his self-control, Severus was surprisingly easy to tempt. She found it downright adorable that he had been trying to 'behave' and not give her mother reason to complain, but she knew he had been on the edge for days now, and anything would set him off. She was counting on it, in fact.</p><p class="western">It hadn´t been planned on her part to come down to the kitchen in the middle of the night. She would have slipped him a note under his door if it had been. But the moment he stepped in, tousled from tossing and turning in bed, wearing her favorite Joy Division t-shirt, the one that used to hang lose on him but had been getting just a little snug, and the grey flannel pajama trousers that barely disguised the fact that he had forgone underwear, she knew what they´d end up doing. At least she knew what she wanted to do.</p><p class="western">Ever the gentleman, however, he was trying to go slow, to show her the sweet courtesy of proper foreplay. At this point it was all it was...a courtesy. They had been engaging in nothing but foreplay for days now. They´d been all over each other at any precious few minutes alone they could steal. Evelyn had lost track of how many times she had been worked up to the point of plain arousal only to be left wanting because her mother found a way to interrupt.</p><p class="western">No, she thought, pulling his hips into hers, digging her nails on his bare arse and running her tongue across his jaw. She had foreplay, quite enough of it. She needed him now. She was ready for it.</p><p class="western">Severus hissed and the tight, wiry muscles under his heated skin jolted under the palms of her hands. His hips pressed down on her, his breath hitched and his cock hard.</p><p class="western"> </p>
<hr/><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Fuckin´tease” he whispered, sinking his teeth on her shoulder.</p><p class="western">“We don´t have all night, you know?” she giggled, putting her arms around his shoulders and pushing his head down, to rest on the softness of her breasts.</p><p class="western">Severus would have loved to take his time. The idea of making a slow, debauched feast out of her, sprawled on her mother´s kitchen table, the precious kitchen table where she made her precious family recipes, was too enticing. He would love nothing more than to sprawl her across the table, every luscious, delectable bit of her, and take his time, run his lips across every inch of skin, every little crevice and curve of hers, make her come on his tongue and taste it.</p><p class="western">But they didn´t have time. Mrs. Black was a light sleeper he´d noticed, and he wouldn´t be at all surprised if she simply sprouted out of the kitchen floor like a demon summoned out of hell. Part of him almost wished she did, if anything out of sheer spite. Yes, Mrs. Black, I´m about to fuck your daughter right here on your sacred kitchen table and she´s going to enjoy every second of it, and there´s not a single bloody thing you can do about it.</p><p class="western">A shiver went up his spine and he felt the heat under his skin burn like a furnace. Severus almost didn´t recognise the low, hissing growl he produced in the back of his throat as a noise he was even capable of producing.</p><p class="western">Evelyn let out the tiniest little yelp when he pulled her off the table by the hips and turned her around, nudging her legs apart with his knee. He could tell it was taking all she had to keep quiet. She was always so loud. And he loved it that she was loud, scandalous. But to see her so quiet, almost suffering to keep her voice down....it was oddly arousing...In the semi darkness he could see her bite on of her knuckles, forcing herself not to moan when he was finaly inside of her.</p><p class="western"> </p>
<hr/><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Evelyn loved to feel the weight of him crushing her. He knew she did. He knew she loved it when he manhandled her and spun her around like a rag doll. Being vulnerable, handing over control to him, Severus knew it got her off. She almost screamed when he spun her around and pushed her back, filling her in one smooth thrust. This is what she wanted and he gave it to her. Hard and heavy like that.</p><p class="western">Evelyn knew she couldn´t make a single noise. In a way, it made it more exciting. The challenge of it. The thrill of hiding, the fear of being caught. She was sure Severus felt it too.</p><p class="western">Severus usual style of love making was controled and calculated. He liked the teasing, he took pleasure in the drawn out, elaborated display of technique, on taking his time and building up the pleasure little by little.</p><p class="western">There was none of that on the way his fingers dug into her flesh, and his breath burned hot on her neck.</p><p class="western">Severus´ usual style was lovemaking. This? No, this was fucking.</p><p class="western">And he did it just as well.</p><p class="western"> </p>
<hr/><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">It was all a dizzy blur when his body started to move on instinct, roughly, thrusting and rutting into her. Severus didn´t think, he didn´t care. He finaly had her, and that was all there was to it. No teasing, no method or control. No foreplay, and sweet, naughty endearments. Just fuck. Just do it fast and do it now, before something spoils it.</p><p class="western">He leaned in, resting his forehead on the back of her neck, his nose inhaling lavender and his tongue tasting sweat. He heard Evelyn laugh softly, quietly, as she raised her head and looked back at him, He grabbed her by the neck and pulled her for a kiss, huffing and moaning inside her mouth.</p><p class="western">It took nothing for him to forget where he was. There was nothing around him other than Evelyn´s scent, her taste, the way she felt beneath him, around him. Nothing at all but her, her mouth, her warmth and the sheer bliss of being inside of her.</p><p class="western">He lost himself in it.</p><p class="western">Big mistake.</p><p class="western">If he hadn´t lost himself to his own pleasure, Severus might have remembered ther were a a bottle and two glasses sitting right on the table they were violently shaking in their feverish enthusiasm,</p><p class="western">Then Severus learned that the sound of glass shattering on the floor is particularly loud when it happens to occur in the middle of the night, in a house in the quiet Irish countryside and the mother of the woman you happen to be shagging is sleeping right upstairs.</p><p class="western">“Well, there goes my mother´s whiskey.”</p><p class="western"> </p>
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<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A little patience</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Severus patience gets tested just a little bit more, and the city lad discovers some of the joys of the countryside. (mostly SFW, warning for implied/discussed homophobia)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
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</p><p class="western">First there was silence.</p><p class="western">For a moment, Severus actually believed they´d get away with it. That Mrs Black would just go back to bed and that would be it. As quietly as they could manage they got themselves dressed somewhat decent, Severus in particular quite glad that his excitement has wilted rather fast. Gathering his wits about him, he assesseted the situation. There were shards of glass and whiskey all over the kitchen tiles, so that had to be addressed first.</p><p class="western">Easy enough, one wand motion and the mess would be gone, and then he could apparate them both to his bedroom and Mrs. Black would never know what had happened. They could replace her whiskey with a new bottle the next day.</p><p class="western">Almost as immediately as he had made these mental calculations and moment he reached into his pocket for his wand to clean the mess, Severus saw lights upstairs</p><p class="western">“I´ve got this.” he whispered, but Evelyn stopped his hand before he could move his wand. Then she calmly turned the lights on.</p><p class="western">“Leave the mess and go back to your room.”</p><p class="western">“What, no...”</p><p class="western">“She already heard the noise, if she comes down doesn´t find anything broken and nobody in the kitchen, THEN she´ll suspect something is wrong.”</p><p class="western">“But...”</p><p class="western">“Trust me, not the first time I´ve done this.”</p><p class="western">“Not the first time you..”</p><p class="western">“The moment you hear her voice you come back down and act like the noise woke you up as well.”</p><p class="western">Severus vanished from the kitchen just as he heard the sound of a door opening and the soft ruffling noise of dainty slippers dragging sleepily along the hardwoof floors.</p><p class="western">Within seconds he was back in his own room, trying not to laugh too loud at the absurdity of it all. Then he pressed his ear to the door, waiting for his cue to go back downstairs and act like nothing happened.</p><p class="western">Oddly...he was having fun.</p><p class="western">It would have been much easier to just stay in the kitchen and act like proper adults, but somehow the game had started to become...arousing?</p><p class="western">“I must be going entirely bonkers...”</p><p class="western"><br/>
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</p><p class="western">“It´s me, mam.” Evelyn grabbed a broom and started to make a show of cleaning the mess, acting as calm as possible. “I´m sorry I woke you...carefull with the shards.”</p><p class="western">“What on earth is going on here, lass?”</p><p class="western">“I came downstairs to get some ice cream and a glass of whiskey and made a mess, I´m afraid.”</p><p class="western">“Evelyn, is that my...”</p><p class="western">“I owe you another bottle. I´m so sorry.”</p><p class="western">“You most certainly do! Jesus, child, you´ve never been this clumsy before. I swear you could have heard the noise all the way from Galway.”</p><p class="western">“Oh, don´t be so dramatic.”</p><p class="western">“What´s going on?” Severus, perfectly in cue, appeared right behind Sophia.</p><p class="western">“Heavy sleeper, uh?” Sophia remarked, eyeing him suspsciously. “It took you a moment to come down...”</p><p class="western">“Pardon?”</p><p class="western">“You can go back to sleep, lad, if that´s what you were doing. Evelyn will clean up the mess.”</p><p class="western"><br/>
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</p><p class="western">“So, you´ve done that before” Severus caught up with Evelyn as she came out of her bedroom the next morning. She was looking refreshed and comfortable in a pair of capri denims and a dark pink blouse, hair pulled back in a ponytail. When Severus spotted the red ballerina flats, he confirmed what he´d been thinking. No way in hell she´d be caught without her signature high heels back in Cokeworth, or anywhere else in the world.</p><p class="western">It seemed Evelyn had a whole other wardrobe for her mother´s house. A much more demure one. Her “good girl wardrobe”. No wonder her mother thought he was some sort of big bad wolf set on ruining her precious little girl. The whole concept was entirely too funny for him to ignore it.</p><p class="western">“What?” She stopped in the middle of the corridor right in front of him with a knowing smile on her lips.</p><p class="western">“Drop the innocent little girl act, love, it only works for your mum.” he sniggered, resting his shoulder on the doorframe of his bedroom and flashing her a devious grin. “You said it yesterday, you had done it before? Am I to assume is not the first time you defile your mother´s kitchen or...?”</p><p class="western">“Hardly anything that interesting. If Sophia Maeve Black is your mother, then having a boyfriend becomes less of a normal teenage thing and more of a Mission Impossible scenario. Sneaking around becomes second nature.”</p><p class="western">“She really didn´t suspect anything last night?”</p><p class="western">“Oh, she did. She just won´t admit it as long we don´t.” she smiled. “Now let´s get down for breakfast, we´re already late and my mother never waits for anybody...”</p><p class="western"><br/>
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</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“The two of you decided to sleep in today?” Sophia greeted, already sitting by the breakfast table and finishing her plate. “Have any of you got any sleep last night?”</p><p class="western">“I slept like a baby.” Evelyn gave her a kiss on the forehead. Severus took his seat across from Sophia, wondering what the devil she was up to this time. She had that look about her...that look of being up to no good.</p><p class="western">“Why you ask?” Evelyn served him a scone with cherry jam before making her own plate.</p><p class="western">“No reason...I just kept hearing things bumping in the night. I almost thought a ghost broke that bottle.”</p><p class="western">Sophia wasn´t stupid, Severus knew it. But somehow the fact that she was on to them made it all more exciting. She would probably die before admiting what she knew had happened in the kitchen.</p><p class="western">“I hope you two kids have got a good rest because there´s a full day ahead of us.” she announced.</p><p class="western">There it was, Severus thought.</p><p class="western">May the games begin.</p><p class="western">“Oh, so you have plans for the day.” Evelyn said, looking at him with a 'and here it comes' expression.</p><p class="western">“Well, I´ve been thinking...I have so much time in my hands now that I should probably find myself a new hobby. Or pick up an old one again.”</p><p class="western">“Sounds lovely.”</p><p class="western">“The old chicken coop is still there, and...I haven´t had chickens in there since, oh dearest me, since your sister moved out, I think. I should get it repaired, then see if you uncle Owen has some nice chickens I can take a look at.”</p><p class="western">“You want to start raising chickens again?”</p><p class="western">“And I thought it would be lovely if Severus could come and help me pick some at Owen´s. This way he can get to meet your uncle.”</p><p class="western">“I´m sorry, Mrs. Black but I´m afraid I don´t know the first thing about chickens.”</p><p class="western">“Is not that hard. Just figured it would be an easier task for you than repairing the chicken coop. I don´t think you know any carpentry, do you?”</p><p class="western">“No, ma´am, but..”</p><p class="western">“Don´t call me 'ma´am', I´m not the bloody queen. Well, no bother. Linnie does know a fair bit about carpentry, she helped her father all the time. Why don´t you go get some materials for that while Severus and I go up to Owen´s, dear?”</p><p class="western">“Ah...” Evelyn seemed as amused as she was stunned. “..sure. We can do that.”</p><p class="western"><br/>
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</p><p class="western">“I am not getting in a car with your mother to pick up a lot of chickens.” Severus hissed at her the moment Sophia got up to get everything she needed into the car.</p><p class="western">“Oh, relax. She´s going to uncle Owen´s. You´ll like him, and he won´t let her do anything outrageous.”</p><p class="western">“I am NOT loading a bunch of chickens into a car!”</p><p class="western">“You won´t! That´s not how it works. We have to fix up everything in the backyard before she brings them back, is not like you´ll actually be loading chickens into her car. Uncle Owen will bring them later in his trunk.”</p><p class="western">“What does she need me for, then?”</p><p class="western">“You just stand around while they show you the farm and she picks the ones she wants. It´s just a little ride along the countryside, that´s all.”</p><p class="western">“Evelyn...”</p><p class="western">“I know, I know...she´s trying to make you uncomfortable. But my mother loves animals, and she had these gorgeous chickens in the backyard when we were little that were her pride and joy. If she really want to do this again, that´s a great thing. And even if it´s just to spite you, she´s trying to include you in something she loves. Just go with it.”</p><p class="western">“Severus, have you brought any boots with you?” Sophia asked from outside.</p><p class="western">“He has, mam, don´t worry.”</p><p class="western">“I am not putting on my Doc Marteens to step on cow shit, Evelyn.”</p><p class="western">“The ones from 1983 you wear everywhere? I´m quite sure they´ll survive. Just watch your step and it should be fine.”</p><p class="western">“I don´t wear them everywhere!”</p><p class="western">“You´d wear them to bed if I let you, Sev. I got you a pair of Solovairs and high ankle Oxfords and they´re still inside the boxes they came in back at home.”</p><p class="western">“Evelyn, I am not...”</p><p class="western">“Here, Severus.” Sophia walked past them into the backyard, and came back holding up a pair of dusty black wellingtons. “These were Evelyn´s father´s, for when he went fishing. They should fit you. Now finish your breakfast and meet me outside.”</p><p class="western">“You know I can build her a whole bloody chicken coop from scratch if she wants, just tell her that.” Severus pleaded once Sophia was outside</p><p class="western">“With magic? No way. Just humour her. You´ll live. I´ll go see how much material she needs and if you´re so intent on helping with the chicken coop we can do that tomorrow.”</p><p class="western">“Ok, fine...” the car horn outside interrupted him mid-sentence.</p><p class="western"><br/>
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</p><p class="western">“You must be Severus!” Evelyn´s uncle, Sophia´s eldest brother waved at them when they got out of the car right in front of his gate. At the ripe age of 77, Owen was not only quite sprightly but he had noticeably held on to some of his youthful good looks. Much like his sister, Owen had a fair complexion blue eyes, and had most likely been fair haired before his hair had thinned and gone entirely white. As he came along and shook his hand. Severus noticed the hands were harsh and dry, as expected from somebody who´d been working at a farm his whole life, but his smile was soft and forthcoming. Severus almost expected it to be a trap.</p><p class="western">“Severus has come with me to help pick the chickens and to get to meet everyone.” Sophia announced. “Are Cillian and the boys around?”</p><p class="western">“The boys haven´t come from Ennis yet, but Cillian has been meaning to talk to Severus, he told me. Something about the old mauser? You´re not a gun enthusiast, are you, son?”</p><p class="western">“Not at all I´m afraid.”</p><p class="western">“Me neither, but there was a time before either me or Sophia were born when you needed a good riffle around here. Go right ahead, son, explore a little while I show my sister what I have.” he gave Severus a friendly tap on the shoulder “Once you´re done looking around, come in for some tea. Cillian is by the garage if you want to catch up with him.”</p><p class="western">Severus didn´t particularly want to “catch up with Cillian” but he was glad to see himself relieved of Sophia´s presence. And come to think of it, he would have liked to see what Cillian had to say for himself in regards to that mauser riffle prank.</p><p class="western">The man waiting for him near the garage was the spit image of Uncle Owen, only a foot taller, a foot wider and 40 years younger give or take. And he still had his full head of bright red hair intact. Severus found him exactly where he´d been told to look, unloading boxes from the back of a pickup truck.</p><p class="western">“Good morning.” Severus greeted, clearing his throat. “Cillian, I presume?”</p><p class="western">“Severus?”</p><p class="western">“That´d be me.”</p><p class="western">“It´s nice to finally meet you, mate.” Cillian dusted his hands on his denims and gave him a firm handshake.</p><p class="western">“Your father told me you wanted to talk to me. I found it strange, as we haven´t even been properly introduced yet. I did hear a lot about you, you´re one of Evelyn´s favorite cousins, it seems.”</p><p class="western">“All the more reason I have to apologize then.”</p><p class="western">“What for?”</p><p class="western">“The riffle. Aunt Sophia told me you wanted to see it and that it would be a nice to hang it on the wall, so you could take a look. Imagine my surprise when Evelyn told me...”</p><p class="western">“Oh, that...It´s quite alright. It was just a big misunderstanding.”</p><p class="western">“Even so...a big misundertanding is not a proper welcome to the family.”</p><p class="western">“Welcome to the family?” Severus echoed, mildly shocked.</p><p class="western">“You and Evelyn are pretty serious, aren´t you?”</p><p class="western">“Well...yes.”</p><p class="western">“Aunt Sophia is not going to make things easy for you, you know?”</p><p class="western">“I noticed.”</p><p class="western">“Don´t mind her. She´s just protective of Linnie. Has been since...”</p><p class="western">“Severus! There you are” They turned to see Sophia approaching, her blue, flowery wellingtons sinking into the mud as she stomped her way towards them. “Come along, lad! Owen has the most gorgeous sumatra rooster for us, come and see.”</p><p class="western"><br/>
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</p><p class="western">Luckly the chicken coop had no structural damage and just needed new wire and a few woodplanks replaced. Evelyn had picked up all she needed and thrown in a few cans of paint and some brushes while at it. When the coop was first built her father had painted it in her mother´s favorite light blue, but overtime the color had faded to a dirty white. It had taken Evelyn the better part of the day to find the exact same shade of blue to repaint it.</p><p class="western">Evelyn knew the whole idea had just been another way of anoying Severus, but deep down she was happy her mother had decided to do it even if for the wrong reasons. Evelyn remembered how much her mother doted on the little bantams they had in the backyard, how they´d always have fresh eggs and how she and her siblings would play with the little baby chicks. Those were happy times. Alice and Lizzie would have so much fun if they did that all over again.</p><p class="western">Hopefully uncle Owen would keep her mother in check so Severus wouldn´t suffer too much.</p><p class="western">Evelyn parked the car and started to get the cans of paint, the brushes and material out of the trunk to haul it all to the backyard.</p><p class="western">“I could certainly use some magic right now.” she thought to herself, glad that she had asked the store to deliver the wood instead of bringing it herself.</p><p class="western">As she was about to pour herself a glass of water, she heard the front door open.</p><p class="western">“You two are early....Sev, what happened?!”</p><p class="western">Evelyn went to meet them at the door and found, to her astonishment, Severus all scratched up about the face and arms, and his clothes covered in mud and, quite possibly, manure.</p><p class="western">“Linnie, pet, go get the merthiolate and some cotton in the kitchen will you?”</p><p class="western">“What happened? Were you in an accident? Mam, are you...”</p><p class="western">“I´m fine, I´m fine...Your boyfriend just had a run in with a sumatra.”</p><p class="western">“A...chicken did that?” Evelyn</p><p class="western">“A rooster.” Severus corrected her, visibly indignant. “Your mother failed to warn me this particular breed can be aggressive.”</p><p class="western">“Mam, you´re not getting a sumatra rooster, are you?”</p><p class="western">“She already did.”</p><p class="western">“Severus please shower and change before Linnie tends to your injuries. I don´t want to get any mud on my furniture. Now if you two excuse me, I need to pop into your sister´s house for a moment.”</p><p class="western"><br/>
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</p><p class="western">“Go ahead and laugh, I know you want to.”</p><p class="western">Severus sat on the couch, fresh out of the shower, wearing the lightest pair of black pants he owned and a white t-shirt he didn´t even remever having, patting his wet hair on a towel. Evelyn brought him a beer and checked his injuries before starting to tend to them.</p><p class="western">“You look like you need a drink.”</p><p class="western">“Don´t you have anything stronger?”</p><p class="western">“We broke the whiskey...”</p><p class="western">“I meant something more like strychnine, arsenic, bleach?”</p><p class="western">“You probably have some those in your suitcase, I can get it for you if you want?”</p><p class="western">“Aren´t you a delight...”</p><p class="western">“Speaking of your kit, do you have anything in there I can use for the scratches?” she asked, biting her tongue not to laugh and carefully cleaning his scratches with a cottonball full of an antiseptic she had gotten from the first aid kit in the kitchen.</p><p class="western">“I do, but your mother would suspect if all my scratches just disappeared within half an hour. We´ll have to stick to the muggle stuff.” he answered, hissing at the burn of the medicine.</p><p class="western">“How did this even happen?”</p><p class="western">“Fuck if I know? Your mother wanted to show me a bloody rooster. Apparently she´s been dying to get one of those because, I don´t know, some nonsense about them being all black and a fancy breed? All I know is that before I could even lay eyes on that thing it was all over me. Your uncle had to wrang it back to the cage.”</p><p class="western">“Sumatras can be aggressive, sometimes.”</p><p class="western">“Or your mother riled it up to attack me.”</p><p class="western">“If my mother wanted to hurt you, I don´t think she would have trained a chicken assassin. Seems like an awful lot of work and not too effective. She would have just gone with the mauser and done it herself.”</p><p class="western">“You´re having entirely too much fun with this.”</p><p class="western">“Oh, relax, love. You´re not the first person to get attacked by a rooster. It happened to me and my siblings more than once when we were kids.”</p><p class="western">“I honest to God cannot imagine you tending to chickens.”</p><p class="western">“I didn´t. My sister was the one who helped my mother with them.”</p><p class="western">“Figures.”</p><p class="western">“ What I had was a pet a pig.”</p><p class="western">“You had a what?”</p><p class="western">“A pet pig. Her name was Suzette and she was the cutest thing. Here let me show you!”</p><p class="western">Severus marvelled at how suddenly excited she was to show him the picture of a pig. She sounded like a little girl showing off a new doll house. Evelyn walked to the antique sideboard by the window where all the family pictures were displayed in neat, varied frames. Severus hadn´t paid much attention to any of those, he now noticed. Maybe Sophia´s antics had occupied so much of his time he had neglected to actually look around the house.</p><p class="western">He followed her and looked at the photos. Weddings, christenings, birthdays, photos of Evelyn and her siblings as children, photos of Cailtin´s daughters. He somehow could recognise each and every face as if they were his own family. Well, of course he did, Evelyn had most of the very same pictures in her house, and he had spent countless hours listening to all her family stories. Maybe not all of the, though...The pig certainly caught him off guard.</p><p class="western">“Here.” she handed him a frame that showed a photo of herself as a child, probably at around 6 or 7. Her hair was done up in piggytails with bright pink bows, she was wearing a white and red checkered dress with lace frills in every hem and pink slippers with frilly socks on her feet. She was also holding a tamworth piglet in her arms. To Severus bemused surprise, the piglet was wearing the very same dress.</p><p class="western">“You two match.”</p><p class="western">“Yes, whenever my grandmother made me a new dress she used the fabric scraps to make a little something fo Suzette. Wasn´t she adorable?”</p><p class="western">“Well, she definitely was...something.”</p><p class="western">“You look shocked.”</p><p class="western">“Not really, I just suddenly crave porkchops, that´s all.”</p><p class="western">“Don´t be mean.” she gave him a slight slap on the arm and put the photoframe back. “Come on, let´s finish patching you up.”</p><p class="western">“Lyn..” another photoframe caught his eye. The photo in it showed Evelyn as a teenager sitting on the livingroom couch with her sister, probably around ten or nine, on her lap, and next to them there was a boy about Evelyn´s age, with light brown, nearly blonde hair and big brown eyes. “Who´s this? He seems familiar but I can´t quite place him.”</p><p class="western">“Oh, that´s Fin. He was a lot blonder when he was young, wasn´t he?”</p><p class="western">“Fin, as in Emmet Finnerty?” Severus had met Fin a month prior when he had dropped by to visit Evelyn in Cokeworth. Fin had been her brother´s best friend and after Paul´s passing he had, in a way, “adopted” Evelyn as his sister. They were indeed as close as siblings could be. On their way to visit Evelyn´s family they had even stayed at the flat Fin shared with his boyfriend in Blackrock. Evelyn had a few photos of him back at home, but Severus didn´t expect to see one in Sophia´s livingroom.</p><p class="western">“This is from the time he lived here.”</p><p class="western">“Fin lived here? In this house, you mean?”</p><p class="western">“Yes, he did.” she told him with a sad smile. “After his parents kicked him out.”</p><p class="western">“I don´t have to ask why they did it...”</p><p class="western">“He was planning to come out only after he´d left for college, but they found out. My father had to physically restrain his father or he would have beat the living lights out of him. It was awful.”</p><p class="western">“So your parents knew?”</p><p class="western">“That Fin was gay? Of course. I think they knew before his own parents did. People can be blind like that.”</p><p class="western">“And your mother let him live here?”</p><p class="western">“For the whole five years it took for us to move to Dublin for college. The bedroom my mother gave you used to be his, actually.”</p><p class="western">“Your mother sure is full of surprises.”</p><p class="western">“I know what you´re thinking. And I don´t blame you, my mother hasn´t been doing herself any favors with how she´s treating you...Thing about her is...she can be difficult, overbearing, and yes she can be quick to judge people, and she´s obnoxiously religious but...She´s a good person. She´s not a nice person, but she´s a good person.”</p><p class="western">“I recall you saying that about me once.” he laughed softly.</p><p class="western">“You´re a bit like her in that.”</p><p class="western">“Excuse me?”</p><p class="western">“My mother...is hurt. She´s been hurting for years now. And sometimes when people are hurt, they lash out, they´re difficult to handle, and they´re unpleasant. It doesn´t mean they´re bad, and it doesn´t mean you give up on them. Because they will fight you and push you away, and they will test your patience until they know it´s worth letting you in.”</p><p class="western">“Your point?”</p><p class="western">“My mother doesn´t dislike you. She just doesn´t know if you´re worth letting in yet. So she´ll test you, and annoy you and make you go bonkers until she does. You´re not that different.”</p><p class="western">“I take exception to that...”</p><p class="western">“Malarkey and you know it.” she smiled “Just don´t let her get to you. Be patient.”</p><p class="western">“Lyn?...”</p><p class="western">“Yes?”</p><p class="western">“In the spirit of not letting Mrs Black get to me...”</p><p class="western">“...aha...?”</p><p class="western">“You think I can drop by your bedroom tonight?” he ran the tips of his fingers along the side of her hip till her waist and pulled her in. “...I wouldn´t want to risk breaking any more valuable bottles of liquor, so the bedroom is probably safer.”</p><p class="western">“We can do that...or...” she trailed as her lips ghosted along his jawline and she traced her fingernails along the back of his neck, gicing him the shivers</p><p class="western">“Or...?”</p><p class="western">“Why wait till tonight, when we have the house to ourselves now.” her whisper in his ear was low, raspy and sweet as anything he´d ever heard. He knew what she was getting at, and he liked the sound of it.</p><p class="western">“You think she is going to take much longer at your sister´s?”</p><p class="western">“I don´t know.”</p><p class="western">“We probably shouldn´t.”</p><p class="western">“Maybe not here in the livingroom, but if we go up to my room, we can certainly hear he when she comes back.”</p><p class="western"><br/>
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</p><p class="western">“Have you done this before?” he breathed heavily, ragged, as he tried to talk and kiss her lips at the same time. “up here in your bedroom?”</p><p class="western">“Not since I was...ah...” her words became sighs when he clumsly tugged at her pants and pushed them halfway down her legs. With a couple kicks she managed to get them off and toss them on to the floor. “15, I think?”</p><p class="western">“15? That early? Naughty, naughty girl.” he laughed as he nipped at the inner part of her thighs, and the laughter vibrated across her skin all the way up to her sex.</p><p class="western">“Shut up and hurry, you eejit.” she chided, playfully pressing her foot onto the bulge on his crotch.</p><p class="western">“AUNT LYYYYYN!!!” they heard the front door slam open, and the pattering of feet echoed across the house.</p><p class="western">“What the...” Severus froze in the middle of undoying his trousers.</p><p class="western">“That´s Lizzie.”</p><p class="western">“Your niece?”</p><p class="western">“Aunt Lyn, where are you?”</p><p class="western">“Both of them, Alice is there too. Come on, get dressed!”</p><p class="western">“Your mother brought your nieces?”</p><p class="western">“Don´t worry.” she smiled, conforting. “We can continue this tonight after they go back home.”</p><p class="western"><br/>
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</p><p class="western">“Auntie Lyn, where´s the chickens?!” Lizzie burst in through the door and jumped on the bed where Evelyn was sitting. Severus slithered away and sat on the armchair.</p><p class="western">Fortunately they had time to get dressed, and put some modest distance between them before the gilrs came in. Right behind Lizzie, Alice, a little more contained, also climbed on the bed. Evelyn gave them both bear hugs and kisses as they tumbled about on the cushions, giggling.</p><p class="western">“Grandma said she got chickens! Live ones ” Alice announced, as if to explain her sisters outburst.</p><p class="western">“SHE DID! CHICKENS!” Lizzie yelped.</p><p class="western">“Oh, the chickens! Uncle Owen will bring them tomorrow.”</p><p class="western">“Tomorrow we´re going to see the baby chicks?!”</p><p class="western">“I don´t know if there will be any babies.”</p><p class="western">“Is it true a rooster attacked uncle Sev?” Alice asked, seriously, looking at the scratches on his face.</p><p class="western">“It was less of an attack and more of a strong disagreement, darling.” Severus told her. Only then he noticed the two girls had their rucksacks on their backs, and they looked full.</p><p class="western">“Uncle Sev, did you know chickens are like little dinosaurs?”</p><p class="western">“Uncle Sev you got attacked by a dinousaur, a big one?”</p><p class="western">“Where´s Cat?” Evelyn asked when Sophia walked in. as the girls swamped Severus with questions and observations about dinosaurs and birds and he did his best to answer.</p><p class="western">“Your sister is working the night shift, so the girls are spending the night with us.”</p><p class="western">“Oh...you didn´t tell us...”</p><p class="western">“Grandma said you´d let us sleep in your room and make a pillow fort!” Lizzie told her, excited</p><p class="western">“Of course she did.” Severus sighed.</p><p class="western">“Let´s get the Christmas lights from the garage, they´ll look wonderful in the pillow fort.” Sophia announced, triumphant. “And I´ll bake cookies, we can even have a cake! And there´s coke and sprite in the fridge. We´ll have a long, fun night, all of us, what do you say, girls?”</p><p class="western">“Can we get taytos?”</p><p class="western">“And pizza?”</p><p class="western">“Mam, that´s a bit too much...” Sophia solemnly ignored her and went down to the kitchen to start baking, Alice and Lizzie right on her heels. “Oh, my God...she´ll let them have cake for dinner, I bet. They´ll be bouncing off the walls with the sugar.”</p><p class="western">“Yes. That´s the plan, love. Payback for the bottle we broke, I bet.”</p><p class="western">“I swear ...”</p><p class="western">“Love...”</p><p class="western">“What?!”</p><p class="western">“I though we were supposed to NOT let her get to us?”</p><p class="western">“Yeah, fuck that.” he hissed, then jumped from the bed and marched after Sophia.</p><p class="western">“Well...it IS going to be a long night, for sure.”</p><p class="western"><br/>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Misbehaving</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Fairy stories, tea partys and a little misbehaving</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
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<p class="western">One thing became immediately clear to Severus from the moment he met her: Sophia would go to any lenghts to make sure her grandddaughters were happy, and whatever wish they expressed, no matter how absurd, she would grant it. The fact that in this particular instance, pampering the girls also meant a new opportunity to get on his nerves, well, that was only an added bonus.</p>
<p class="western">As it was, Severus couldn´t trully say he was annoyed by any of it. However rude she might have been to him, Sophia was obviously a doting grandmother, so who was he to feel any kind of way about the girls staying overnight?</p>
<p class="western">If anything, it made Evelyn happy.</p>
<p class="western">She absolutely adored those two little girls, and looking at them interact was downright fascinating. Severus was the first to admit he didn't have much patience for children, and close to no experience in handling them if they were younger than 11, so the prospect of spending the day with a 7 year-old and a 4 year-old was far from his idea of having fun. However, Alice and Lizzie were better behaved than he would have expected any child so young to be, and Evelyn seemed to have them under a spell.</p>
<p class="western">Still, he tried to keep his distance as Evelyn gathered books, papers and crayons, then sat on the livingroom floor to start some impromptu storytelling and drawing stravaganza. Of course the aunt who had written so many books about folklore, myths and witchcrafts would be the the girls´ go-to authority on everything fantasy related. He didn´t want to disturb what seemed like such a familiar little ritual between aunt and nieces.</p>
<p class="western">The backyard would be off-limits for a while, he realized, looking through the windows to see rainclouds gathering. He could hear Sophia in the kitchen, making all the cake and cookies she had promised.</p>
<p class="western">Severus rested against the windowframe, hearing the first drops of the summer shower hit the glass, when he felt a little tug on his hand. He looked down to see Lizzie, holding on to his fingers with both hands.</p>
<p class="western">“Come on, uncle Sev, aunt Lyn is gonna start the story.”</p>
<p class="western">'Uncle Sev'.</p>
<p class="western">Well, there was something he never thought he would be called. It didn´t feel half bad.</p>
<p class="western">“Yes, 'uncle Sev',” Evelyn called, with a grin “come on, I need somebody to read the chieftain of this story, and your voice is perfect for it.”</p>
<p class="western">Without waiting for his answer, Lizzie pulled his hand and dragged him to sit on the floor with them.</p>
<p class="western">“Fine,” he said “but I won't even attempt an Irish accent. Your mother already dislikes me as it is.”</p>
<p class="western">“We can turn the Irish chieftain into an English prince.” She suggested, to the children´s immediate approval.</p>
<p class="western">“What are we reading, then?”</p>
<p class="western">“ The queen of the many coloured chamber.' ”</p>
<p class="western">“I´m afraid I´m not familiar.”</p>
<p class="western">“Here, you take the book. I know it by heart.”</p>
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<p class="western">It was still rainning by the time the girls grew bored of listening to stories. The scent of freshly baked lavender biscuits, however, gave Alice a sudden inspiration.</p>
<p class="western">“Let's have a tea party!”</p>
<p class="western">Evidently, Alice, being Alice, had to make sure the entire event was properly organized.</p>
<p class="western">They needed invitations, formal ones, of course. A sheet of parchment paper would do. Evelyn cut it up in small cards and wrote in “Miss Alice Sullivan and her sister, Miss Elizabeth Sullivan, cordially invite you to their tea party, to be celebrated as soon as grandma´s chocolate cake is ready. Adddress: the backyard.” Severus was tasked with finding a way to put a small table in the backporch, so they could enjoy the rain while having tea. Sophia, obviously, let them use her tea set painted with small pink roses, and arranged biscuits, sandwiches and the fully decorated cake on the table, along with fresh jasmine tea.</p>
<p class="western">Alice was rather adamant that everybody was properly dressed for the occasion, which meant that the girls got to go through Evelyn´s clothes and make up, and wear her heels. Alice deemed both Evelyn and Sophia´s attire appropriate, but Severus had to at least put on a blazer to be presentable.</p>
<p class="western">“This must feel familiar” Sophia quipped as they sat around the table, engulfed in the scent of rain and biscuits.</p>
<p class="western">“I haven't been invited to that many tea parties, to be honest. But, if I may be honest this is probably the most pleasant to date.”</p>
<p class="western">Indeed, the last tea party he recalled attending had been a courtesy of Narcissa Malfoy, and he would take sitting in Sophia´s backporch listening to the rain fall down on her garden with two little girls who called him 'uncle' over that any day.</p>
<p class="western">“Sugar?” Alice asked, primly.</p>
<p class="western">“No, thank you, darling. I take my tea plain.” Lizzie made a funny face, mortified at the thought that anybody would drink tea without any sugar in it.</p>
<p class="western">Evelyn was too busy helping Alice serve the 'guests' to pay attention to it, but Severus could feel Sophia studying him and the way he interacted with her grandchildren, possibly waiting for any sign that he wasn´t to be trusted, any minor flaw or information she could use against him.</p>
<p class="western">“You don't seem like the socializing type to me. I can't imagine you in a party to be honest.”</p>
<p class="western">“You're not wrong. I´m afraid I´m much more of a homebody.”</p>
<p class="western">“A hermit, you mean.” Evelyn smiled, gently.</p>
<p class="western">“What´s that?” Lizzie asked.</p>
<p class="western">“It's a person who doesn't go out much.” Evelyn answered, unware of her mother's next move. “They just stay in to study and pray.”</p>
<p class="western">“That might be a problem.” Sophia went on, not missing a beat. “Evelyn is such a social butterfly. You´ll have trouble keeping up with her, my lad. She's always been very popular.”</p>
<p class="western">“Tell that to my former schoolmates, mam, most of them would disagree. I´ve only started going to parties and making friends in college.”</p>
<p class="western">“Still, I can't imagine you staying in on a Friday or Saturday night.”</p>
<p class="western">“I´ve been doing it a lot lately, can't say I have any complaints.” Evelyn rested her hand on his.</p>
<p class="western">Mercifully, Alice and Lizzie, tired of the grown up conversation at the table of THEIR tea party, decided to take over the proceedings and start asking Severus questions about his friends and which posh parties he had been invited to.</p>
<p class="western">It was a good thing that Sophia only took his descriptions of Malfoy Manor and the wizards and witches within as elaborate fairy tales. He wondered what she'd think if she knew his wealthy former friends, with their mansion, their house elves and magic wands were real.</p>
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<p class="western">The Summer shower had prolongued their tea party at least until the backyard was dry enough for the girls to go outside and check on the fairy doors for any damages. Severus was readily informed that the miniature doors decorated with bouquets of tiny dried wild flowers, ribbons and scraps of lace and fabric were a bit of a family tradition for the Blacks.</p>
<p class="western">“Grandma Liz learned to make them when she was a little girl.” Evelyn told him, while Sophia, Alice and Lizzie checked the fairy doors. “then she taught my father when he was little, then Paul, me, Caitlin, and now the girls are making their own.”</p>
<p class="western">“What's the purpose of it, if I may ask?”</p>
<p class="western">“You have to make a little door and decorate it for the fairies to feel welcome, and put offerings in front of it, like flowers, candy, cake. If you do it, they´ll be pleased and not try any mischief.”</p>
<p class="western">Severus snickered. The species of fairies and sprites he knew from persoal experience were hardly fearsome enough that anybody would feel compelled to bribe them into leaving humans alone. But he had heard about the stories Irish muggles told of the so called 'Fair folk', a race of fairies far more dangerous. Not a single Irish wizard or witch he had ever met confirmed the existence of such creatures, and quite a few of them suspected the origin of the legend had more to do with muggles having hostile encounters with wizards. Wether the theory was true or not, the legend was pervasive enough that even after modern life did away with most such beliefs, the fair folk remained a strong theme in Irish literature, art and of course, children's stories, if Alice and Lizzie´s enthusiasm was anything to go by. They carefully made a varied assortment of cookies and cake, cut up in very small pieces, and rushed to the fairy doors under the apple tree to set down the offerings.</p>
<p class="western">“And if you don't pay your respects appropriately?”</p>
<p class="western">“The lore varies quite a bit, but the common aspect is that the fair folk are easy to anger and once engered can be rather malignant and petty.”</p>
<p class="western">'Like your mother' Severus thought, but didn´t say it.</p>
<p class="western">“They´ll spoil the milk, ruin the crops, steal anything pretty or valuable you have in your home...”</p>
<p class="western">“They steal babies.” Lizzie added, with some urgency.</p>
<p class="western">“Because babies are cute, and the fairies like everything that's cute.” Alice added.</p>
<p class="western">“Babies, children, brides on their wedding day, any human the fairies think is pretty enough to steal.” Evelyn smiled, pulling Lizzie to her lap and playing with her hair. “That´s why grandma Liz made a special fairy door every time a new baby was born in the family.”</p>
<p class="western">“The prettier the child, the more decorations the fairy door needs.” Sophia said, taking her seat again. “Linnie was such a beautiful child when she was born that I think my mother-in-law´s offerings may not have been enough. Guess that´s why you were always wandering around the field and the woods, or sneaking out at night to play with the fairies and swim with the mermaids.”</p>
<p class="western">“Did you really?” Alice and Lizzie both asked at the same time.</p>
<p class="western">Severus´amusement at the fantastical tone of the conversation quickly fadded when he noticed Evelyn´s discomfort.</p>
<p class="western">She had gone through life thinking all the magical events she witnessed growing up were at best figments of her imagination and at worse a coping mechanist her mind used to deal with her brother's death. Years in therapy had only taught her to doubther eyes and the pills had clouded her vision. Only now, after Severus had finally found the strenght to tell her about magic, did Evelyn finally see that it was real and she had never hallucainated anything. But the insecurity would still take a while to go away, and the fact that her family didn´t know the truth didn´t make it at all easier.</p>
<p class="western">“She did.” Severus answered with a sly smile. “In fact, that´s why I´m here. Your aunt hasn't told you this, but I´m a wizard and I'm here to keep her safe from these sneaky fairies.”</p>
<p class="western">“You´re not!” the girls laughed</p>
<p class="western">“Or maybe...I was sent by the fairies to kidnap her instead and you've seen right through my disguise.”</p>
<p class="western">“Speaking of your grandmother, Linnie.” Sophia said, cutting through the girls' giggling. “We should have her over for dinner tonight. Why don´t you go get her while Severus and I help the girls clean up their tea party?”</p>
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<p class="western">Leave it her mother to make her take the car out to go pick up her grandmother only a few streets away, and specifically order Sverus to stay back in the house. Did she expect they´d stop to have sex in the car in the whole 5 minutes the ride would take? Not that the idea in on itself was bad, but surely Evelyn wouldn´t be stupid enough to do it on such a short ride.</p>
<p class="western">“Is you mother behaving?” was the first thing grandma Liz said, upon seeing her show up at her door all by herself an unnanounced.</p>
<p class="western">“You´ve known her for longer than me, gran, so take a guess?”</p>
<p class="western">Liz smiled and shook her head, letting Evelyn in. In the kitchen table there were rolls of fabric and sewing material scattered. Halloween was months away still, but she always got a head start on the girls costumes. It had been the same when when Evelyn and her siblings growing up, she remembered getting her Halloween costume fitter on her birthday in september, just to make sure it would be perfect well ahead of time.</p>
<p class="western">“Funny how things change.” Liz rambled, distractedly, pinning down the pieces of fabric to put them away without ruinning the work already done.</p>
<p class="western">“Why you say that?”</p>
<p class="western">“I married an Englishman, and as a young woman, your mother had no problem marrying our son, now you bring an Egnlishman back home and she's throwing a fuss.”</p>
<p class="western">“I don't think it's about Severus being English. At least not only that.”</p>
<p class="western">“She just doesn't like him, eh? I´ve seen that before. My father didn´t like you grandpa when we got engaged, and your grandpa wasn´t all that fond of your mam the first time your dad brought her home to us.”</p>
<p class="western">“Really? She never mentioned that.”</p>
<p class="western">“Because eventually they found a way to get along. Once Sophia married your father and gave us grandchildren, she became like a daughter to my Marius.”</p>
<p class="western">“Oh, so all I have to do is marry Severus and birth a few kiddos. That´s easy.”</p>
<p class="western">“Don´t worry, Linnie. Your mother will warm up to him soon. You know, before your father married her, your grandfather and I thought Sophia was a little too snobby, a little too conceited. It wasn´t until we got to know her better and see her qualities. I´m sure it will be the same with Severus.”</p>
<p class="western">“I hope you´re right. She´s been unbearable...Can you believe she keeps making up excuses and creating situations to be around us all the time? As if we're not adults, both of us.”</p>
<p class="western">“What does Severus say about it?”</p>
<p class="western">“He's annoyed, but he´s being far more gracious about it than I'd be if I were in his shoes.”</p>
<p class="western">“Good, he´s a worthy contender then.”</p>
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<p class="western">Alice and Lizzie had helped clean the table and do the dishes of their impromptu tea party, so they were rewarded with an hour of TV. Severus hadn´t been that lucky. As the sole other adult in the house, it fell on him to help Sophia in the kitchen.</p>
<p class="western">“Helping” consisted in doing whatever she wanted, in the way she wanted, which was never quite correct, so she'd just do it over again after he had done it. Severus was pretty confident she was always like this with anybody who had the temerity of doing anything in her kitchen, but it still bothered him a bit that a fair amount of the tasks were hard to execute with his left hand being the way it was. To her credit, Sophia didn´t seem to make anything of it. All of her criticism of him seemed to be based exclusively on him being him and the fact that he simple <b>was</b> there, not on his disabilities.</p>
<p class="western">“Evelyn is a lot like you when she's cooking.” he trailed, just for the sake of cutting the tense silence.”</p>
<p class="western">“Is she, now?”</p>
<p class="western">“Yes, she´ll ask for help, but then just do it all herself.” he smiled “Is like she wants me to try and help just for the principle.”</p>
<p class="western">“When she was little, Linnie would be the only one I let in the kitchen with me. My husband, the poor dear, he tried, but he was a disaster at everything except making potato pancakes and grilling meat. And Caitlin, oh dear me, she eventually learned, but if you expected any method in that madness...Linnie was always the only one who could do things exactly the way I told her.”</p>
<p class="western">“Your daughter adores you. She´ll do anything to make you happy.”</p>
<p class="western">“What are you getting at, young man?”</p>
<p class="western">“I know you don't like me. To be honest if I had a daughter and she brough a boke like myself back home to meet me, I's probably be even less civil than you.”</p>
<p class="western">“Severus I don't know what gave you the idea that...”</p>
<p class="western">“Sophia, come on, who are kidding here?”</p>
<p class="western">“I don't know you well enough not to like you.”</p>
<p class="western">“But what you've seen thus far, hasn't exactly endeared you to me either, right?”</p>
<p class="western">“I can't say it did. But you're not for me to like or not. That´s on Linnie. If she loves you, who am I to say anything.”</p>
<p class="western">“You're her mother. And she thinks the world of you. You're the most important person in her life. So I'll try my best to show respect, at least. We don't have to like each other, but we both love Evelyn, and that should be enough.”</p>
<p class="western">Sophia held his gaze for what felt like an hour, before shrugging.</p>
<p class="western">“Severus why don´t you take care of the vegetables, then? I'll try not to correct you too much.”</p>
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<p class="western">Evelyn´s grandmother couldn´t be more different from her mother, Severus thought, seeing Liz walk in, to the cheers of Alice and Lizzie.</p>
<p class="western">He knew Grandma Liz was a bit of an exccentric, with her fairy doors, her tarot cards and stories about sprites, pookas and Leprechauns. Seeing her in person, snowy white curls gently framing a plump, smilling face, wearing a shawl with embroidered with big red flowers over a calico dress with a small print of pink baroque roses, Severus immediately felt this aura about her. An air of complete calm and affability,very much what one expects your typical Irish granny to have, and which Sophia conspicuously lacked. Severus had seen pictures of Liz as a young woman, with her long flowery dresses and hair blowing in the wind, and looking at her in person he knew where Evelyn had got her freckles, as well as her stunning golden-brown eyes. Unsurprisingly, Liz was just as charming as the pictures of her youth suggested.</p>
<p class="western">“Took you long enough, Linnie.” Sophia told her daughter for no reason other than to say something, it seemed to Severus.</p>
<p class="western">“And how fast did you expect the poor lass to return taking an 80 year-old woman along with her?” Liz´s crystaline laugh filled the house.</p>
<p class="western">“We lost track of time chatting, mam.” Evelyn explained</p>
<p class="western">“Dinner is almost ready.”</p>
<p class="western">Of course the first thing Liz did was ask the girls to show her the fairy doors, which they did, both swelling with pride. Evelyn pulled Severus aside.</p>
<p class="western">“How did my mother treat you while I was gone?”</p>
<p class="western">“Well enough. Helping her cook was not such an ordeal.”</p>
<p class="western">“She let you help?”</p>
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<p class="western">Dinner had been surprisingly pleasant.</p>
<p class="western">Evelyn wasn´t sure what Severus and her mother had talked about in her absence, but Sophia was considerably less acerbic. Sure, she had still needled Severus a bit, but nothing to the extent of what she had been doing thus far.</p>
<p class="western">Maybe grandma Liz being there had something to do with it. Her mother always behaved better when she was around. Liz had never been one to mince words around Sophia and was probably the only living person who could get away with criticizing her to her face, which she always did with such sweetness that it was hard for her mother to say anything in response.</p>
<p class="western">After the meal, Evelyn and Severus offered to do the dishes, while her mother got the girls to wash up and get ready for bed. Grandma Liz sat in the kitchen with them, having a cup of her favorite tea that only Sophia could brew to perfection.</p>
<p class="western">“My granddaughter tells me Sophia has been watching you two like a hawk.” she let out all of the sudden, with a mischievous little snicker.</p>
<p class="western">Severus turned around, a little awkward and looked at her, silently asking how much she had told her grandmother. Evelyn just smiled and shrugged.</p>
<p class="western">“My mother seems to think we're a pair of randy teenagers who need to be put on a short leash, even though we´re both closer to 40 than 14. We need to sneak out to hide under the apple tree if we want to even kiss, I swear.”</p>
<p class="western">“Evelyn, I hardly think this is appropriate conversation to have with your grandmother.”</p>
<p class="western">“Oh, that´s malarkey, my lad.” Liz scoffed.”I was young once. So was Sophia, even though she likes to pretend she forgot how it is. I swear she's acting just like my late father, God rest his soul, but back in 1935 at least he was acting according to the times he lived in.”</p>
<p class="western">“My great grandfather didn´t want them to get married.” Evelyn informed him. “He made grandpa Marius work for him as his shop assistant for over a year before he even considered giving them his blessing.”</p>
<p class="western">“He wanted to keep close watch on my Marius, having him work there. He thought if he worked for him, he could make sure we behaved. And still I´d go there at lunch time when my da was back home and Marius and I would sneak into the storage room in the back of the shop when it was all closed down. That's how well my father's vigilance served him. And here´s Sophia thinking she'll do any better with two full grown adults in the year of our Lord of 1999.” Liz picked up her mug of tea and went back to the sitting room, softly laughing to herself.</p>
<p class="western">“Did your grandmother just tells us she used to shag your grandfather in the storage room of her late father´s shop when they were young?” Severus asked, more than a little shocked.</p>
<p class="western">“She very much did.”</p>
<p class="western">“So that´s where you get it.”</p>
<p class="western">“Sev!”</p>
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<p class="western">“Uncle Sev, we´re gonna make a castle!” Lizzie announced as they came running downstairs in their pajamas, hauling a mess of pillows and blankets with them. “Help!”</p>
<p class="western">“It's been a while.” Severus told her “I'm not sure if I even remember how to build a blanket fort...pardon...'castle'”</p>
<p class="western">Severus had built his fair share of blanket forts as a child. He would usually put a chair close enough to his bed so that he could throw a bedsheet over it and make a sort of loopsided tent, then put his pillow and some cushions from the living room inside of it to make it confortable. Then he'd hide inside with a light, a little magic ball of luminescence his mother put inside a jar for him, and read his 'forbidden' books. Books about magic his father would have confiscated and destroyed if he had ever got a hold of them.</p>
<p class="western">“You'll need some chairs.” he said, getting up to drag a couple of them from the dining room.</p>
<p class="western">Sophia brought out the fairy lights and handed them to Evelyn so she could wrap them around the chairs Severus had positioned so the girls could throw the bedsheets over it all and put a thick duvet on the floor, with all all the pillows and cushions over it.</p>
<p class="western">“Can we watch a film with the lights off?” Alice asked.</p>
<p class="western">“A film may take too long, pet. Let's see what´s on tv, maybe we can find something else.” Sophia suggested.</p>
<p class="western">“Well, I'm afraid I cannot stay for late night tv, my loves.” Liz announced. “Severus, would you be a dear and see that I make it back home safely?”</p>
<p class="western">Sophia looked like she was about to protest, but Evelyn had tossed him her car keys before she could properly object.</p>
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<p class="western">“I'm so sorry for making you take me home, my dear.” Liz said as he buckled on and started the car.</p>
<p class="western">“It' no problem at all, Mrs. Black.”</p>
<p class="western">“Just call me Liz. Sophia is Mrs. Black” she gave him a cheeky smile.</p>
<p class="western">“Very, well...Liz.”</p>
<p class="western">“My great-granddaughters seem to have taken quite a liking to you.”</p>
<p class="western">“They´re good children.”</p>
<p class="western">“They didn't like Evelyn's last boyfriend at all. Children can be very good judges of character.”</p>
<p class="western">“Their grandmother doesn't seem to agree with their judgment.”</p>
<p class="western">“She'll come around. Sometimes Sophia is difficult just for the sake of it. She's a Leo, they're all like that.”</p>
<p class="western">“I've never had much luck with Leos, to be honest.”</p>
<p class="western">“You're a capricorn, no? Your kind is supposed to be perseverant. And trust me Sophia may put on a front of being so tough and hard to please, but give her enough time and she'll be calling you 'son' and learning how to make your favourite dish to perfection for when you come to visit. She's a kind soul, just doesn´t like to show it. Evelyn tells me you´re a bit like Sophia in that.”</p>
<p class="western">“Maybe that´s how Lynz can stand me. Past experience.”</p>
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<p class="western">When Severus opened the door the sound of music and laughter floated about in the air around him. He closed the door behind himself, trying to recognise the song, then smiled.</p>
<p class="western">Cole Porter.</p>
<p class="western">The music came from a 1960s record player that Severus thought was just for decoration. Evelyn was teaching the girl's a few steps, while Sophia looked on, with the first genuine smile he'd seen in her face all day. Maybe it was because he hadn´t been around for a while.</p>
<p class="western">He stood by the door, wondering if making his presence known would somehow break the absolute joy of the atmosphere.</p>
<p class="western">“Oh, good, you're back!” Evelyn noticed him and went to pull him by the hand to the middle of room where Alice and Lizzie were practicing the newly learned steps with each other. “We decided to dust off my father´s album collection. Come on, it will be easier to show them the steps with a partner that doesn´t have to stand on my toes.”</p>
<p class="western">Before he could protest, Severus found himself twirling around the room with her.</p>
<p class="western">Severus wasn't the best of dancers by any means, but since Evelyn had come into his life he had learned a few tricks. Of course, dancing in his living room just the two of them after a few too many glasses of wine was much different from having an audience, even if said audience consisted of a pair of little girls and Evelyn's mother.</p>
<p class="western">Somehow he had expected his presence to shatter the atmorphere, but once he found himself immersed in it, inexplicably, he fit. Alice and Lizzie carefully followed his steps as he lead Evelyn across the room in wide circles and lose, easy arabesques and twirls to the tune of 'Let's misbehave'.</p>
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<p class="western">10pm was most definitely too early of a bed time for Severus, but Alice and Lizzie were ecstactic that they could go to bed 'late'. Evelyn had expected them to stay up, after all the cake and biscuits Sophia had given then, but after a tea party, frolicking in the garden, dinner with great grandma Liz, a dance class and half an hour of the Morbegs, they were too exhausted to even think of staying up for long.</p>
<p class="western">“You can go to bed if you want.” Severus told Evelyn, as she rested her head against his shoulder. The movie they were watching on the lowest volume not to wake up the children was almost over. “You must be tired. I´ll just find myself something to read, then call it a night as well.”</p>
<p class="western">“Not at all, really. I think there are some biscuits left from the tea party. Do you want some?” Evelyn asked him quietly.</p>
<p class="western">“No, but if you're planning on making any tea to go with it, then I'll have some.”</p>
<p class="western">They tiptoed around the pillow fort and quietly closed the kitchen door.</p>
<p class="western">“That went smoothly.” she told him, putting the kettle on the stove top.</p>
<p class="western">“It did, actually.”</p>
<p class="western">Severus grabbed the plate full of biscuits from the countertop and put them on the table, then went to grab a pair of mugs for the tea. When he started to pour the water in them, he felt Evelyn´s arms slide around his waist and her voice crooning into his ear, softly, as her hips swayed against his.</p>
<p class="western">
  <em>We're all alone, no chaperone<br/>Can get our number<br/>The world's in slumber<br/>Let's misbehave</em>
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<p class="western">He tried to pull the lyrics from his memory before continuing, quietly, quietly.</p>
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  <em> There's something wild about you child<br/>That's so contagious<br/>Let's be outrageous<br/>Let's misbehave</em>
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<p class="western">He turned around and pulled her close by the waist, and they spun in little circles around the table carefully not to bump into anything and wake the whole house, trying not to laugh too loud.</p>
<p class="western">“We should..” she breathed out, her lips against his</p>
<p class="western">“We should what?”</p>
<p class="western">“Misbehave.”</p>
<p class="western">“I don't think we can do any misbehaving with the children in the house.”</p>
<p class="western">“Who said anything about the house?”</p>
<p class="western">“Then...”</p>
<p class="western">“I´ve been thinking...” Severus almost laughed when she used those words. It was her mother's trademark code for 'I´m about to put you in a difficult situation'.</p>
<p class="western">“Aha...?”</p>
<p class="western">“You're a wizard...”</p>
<p class="western">“That's correct...”</p>
<p class="western">“So you could just...take us somewhere. You´ve done it before.”</p>
<p class="western">“We still have two little girls fast asleep in the house. We can´t just leave them.”</p>
<p class="western">“My mother is home. The girls will be fine if we´re gone for a little while.”</p>
<p class="western">“Very well, miss Black. Where to?”</p>
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<p class="western">The Summer sky above them was nothing short of breathtaking. Framed by the tall spruces and beeches, their branches silhouetted agains the brilliance above, the stars looked like glittering diamonds scattered all over a purple-black cut of rich velvet.</p>
<p class="western">The last time Evelyn had come to Gragan's wood Alice was 4 and Lizzie 2. Evelyn and Caitlin had brought them for a picnic in one of the open areas of the forest, among heathers and bracken. She had no idea why she hadn´t brought Severus here yet.</p>
<p class="western">Somehow he had managed to bring them precisely to one of those small clearings, where the light of the moon and the stars bathed every leave and blade of grass in soft silver.</p>
<p class="western">Before she could properly get her bearings, she saw fine strands of translucent, glittery white leave the tip of Severus wand like water from a fountain, then stretch along in fragile lines, like a spider web, surrounding the clearing. The ground under her bare feet became soft. She looked down to see the dirt replaced by a carpet of very thick and soft grass. The smell of wet earth and rain seemed to thicken into a neraly dizzying fragrance.</p>
<p class="western">“Sometimes I feel like I´ve fallen asleep one day and woke up in one of Alice's fairy tale books.” she smiled at him. “Prince and all.”</p>
<p class="western">“I´m afraid none of the things I´m about to do to you can be considered very...princely.”</p>
<p class="western">The feeling of finally being able to kiss him without worrying that they´d be interrupted was electrifying.</p>
<p class="western">As fun as the little game of sneaking around behind her mother´s back had been, it was really nothing compared to knowing she had him all to herself without not a soul around for miles and miles. Evelyn wanted to keep her eyes open, she loved how Severus stark features looked under the moonlight, severe and intense, with something wild about his deep black eyes. But the scent of his skin and the taste of his lips was too overwhelming.</p>
<p class="western">Behind her closed eyelids she noticed a golden glow surround her. Evelyn opened her eyes and looked around. There were dozens, maybe hundreds spheres od light flowating around them, shedding light into the night.</p>
<p class="western">“I´m quite done having to hide in the dark to get to have you for a few minutes.” Severus drawled, sinking his teeth on her neck.</p>
<p class="western">“Somebody on the road could see all this light...” she protested weakly.</p>
<p class="western">“Nobody will” his fingers grabbed a fistful of her hair and she felt her bare back rest against the trunk of a spruce, her robe and nightgown sliding along her hips down to the grassy ground. “I made sure.”</p>
<p class="western">So that´s what the transparent web was for. A protective spell.</p>
<p class="western">Evelyn´s head rested on the tree trunk behind her, and her eyes looked up to the stars above, beyond the light surrounding her. Severus lips were everywhere, his hands on her hips, holding her in place as if she would ever try to evade him.</p>
<p class="western">She could barely stand upright when he dropped to his knees and parted her legs. She grabbed at the tough bark with one hand, while the other dug into his hair, pulling him close to her, one of her feet was barely touching the ground, while Severus raised her other leg over his shoulder. If not for the tree behind her and his grip on her hips, she would have collapsed righ there.</p>
<p class="western">The warmth that pooled where Severus lips and tongue were on her spread gently trhough her limbs, making her float in a cloud of think, soft pleasure. It ran trough her, faster and faster, like milk slowly boiling and boiling, until it overflowed and spilled.</p>
<p class="western">Evelyn didn´t see when he had got rid of his clothes, but she could feel the sweat and the drag of his skin against hers as he got back to his knees and kissed her.</p>
<p class="western">Before she could come down from the high, both her feet were lifted from the ground, and her trembling thighs were around him. She held on to him, her head on his shoulder, feeling the pressure of his body pushing into hers...inside of hers.</p>
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<p class="western">Severus had no idea how long they had been in that forest, in that clearing under the stars, but he couldn´t be bothered to care. He could be there all night. The adrelnaline rushed through his veins, on and on, and he felt like he could do this forever.</p>
<p class="western">Laying flat on his back on a bed of grass and heathers, it felt like the world outside that wood had vanished into nothingness. There was only the canopy of trees surrounding them, the sky above and Evelyn pessing down on his body, riding him into another climax.</p>
<p class="western">He looked up at her, her hair wild, tangled with leaves and tiny flowers, skin glistening with sweat, muscles taught and hips driving down into him, relentlessly. Her fingernails were digging into his flesh, her voice cracked in hoarse moans. As her tight, wet heat pressed down on his sex, all he could think about was how much her freckles looked like the constelations above them, how much her eyes looked like a pair of twin suns glowing into the night. How utterly stunning she was, and how desperatly he loved her.</p>
<p class="western">He held on, to her thighs as they flexed above him, and watched as she spent herself, crowned with stars and leaves, feeling his own release catch up to him.</p>
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<p class="western">Sophia never really figured out how Severus had managed to finish fixing the chicken coop all by himself in less than an afternoon, but she had the courtesy to thank him.</p>
<p class="western">Maybe she didn´t really want to know why Severus was feeling so energetic in that particular morning. Or why some random spruce leaves and twigs had mysteriouslt turned up around the house, when there were none such trees in the close vicinity.</p>
<p class="western">Alice and Lizzie had slept through the night, and Sophia hadn´t heard any suspicious noises, but she could tell something was different when she woke up so find breakfast already on the table, Severus working the yard outside and Evelyn idly singing Cole Porter in the kitchen. Evelyn insisted they took the girls to meet up with Caitlin and treat her to a well deserved lunch when her shift was done, while Severus finished the coop.</p>
<p class="western">To Sophia's utter shock, he had the whole thing done and repainted by the time they were back.</p>
<p class="western">Like magic.</p>
<p class="western">“Gran!!” Alice, called from the window just as everybody had finished admiring Severus nothing-short-of-miraculous handywork. “Uncle Owen is here with the chickens!”</p>
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<p class="western">“She really bought that nasty little rooster?” Caitlin asked to no one in particular, as Owen uloaded the crates into the backyard.</p>
<p class="western">“Do you know her at all? Uncle Owen even gacer her a special discount on it.” Evelyn rolled her eyes.</p>
<p class="western">“Severus you're a saint. Any other man would be out the door after a rooster attack.”</p>
<p class="western">“Can't say it's the first or even the worst time I've been attacked by an animal” Severus smirked.</p>
<p class="western">Sophia and Owen walked up to where they were, once the chickens had been properly accomodated. The sumatra rooster was still in his crate, for safety.</p>
<p class="western">“We wouldn´t want him to be all over you again, Severus.” Owen quipped. “He seems have taken quite a liking to you, lad.”</p>
<p class="western">“Can't quite say who loves me more, the rooster or your sister, Owen. I trully feel welcome.”</p>
<p class="western">“Well, Severus, if you're so fond of the bird, maybe we should name him after you.” Sophia told him, with a hint of venom. “You wear enough black that I could easily mistake the two of you.”</p>
<p class="western">Alice and Lizzie, unaware of the provocation implied in the suggestion, seemed to love the idea. Evelyn was quite done trying to get her mother to be civil, while Caitlin and Owen just preferred to pretend it was in good fun. Severus shrugged it off. If he could handle Sophia, then he doubted the rooster would be an issue.</p>
<p class="western">“I´m actually starting to like the little bastard.”</p>
<p class="western">With Owen gone to tend to his work, the children got immediately distracted playing with the new chickens and trying to figure out names for them all. The moment Evelyn and Caitlin stepped away to make sure the girls were gentle with the birds, Sophia came closer to him, with a self-satisfied smile on her lips.</p>
<p class="western">“I wonder which Severus will stay in the family for longer.” she let out quietly so nobody else would hear.</p>
<p class="western">“I hope you know how to make cocq au vin.” Severus smirked. “It's one my favourite dishes, and I can´t wait to find out how a sumatra rooster tastes with a good wine and some potates.”</p>
<p class="western">He started to walk away before she had a chance to respond to his dig.</p>
<p class="western">“Severus...” she called as he made his way back inside the house.</p>
<p class="western">“Yes...?”</p>
<p class="western">“I'll have you know I happen to make the best coq au vin outside of France. It was my husband's favorite.”</p>
<p class="western">“I didn't expect any less of you, Mrs. Black.”</p>
<p class="western">“Just call me Sophia. It doesn´t seem like I´ll be seeing the last of you for a while, so might as well drop the formalities.”</p>
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